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MEDIA ADVISORY

Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week at UC Irvine Medical Center

Event:
Dr. Leonard Sender, UC Irvine's Young Adult Cancer Program director, will discuss approaches to improving cancer treatment in adolescents and young adults. Cancer education sessions, free massages, a blood donation table and a rock-climbing wall will be available daily.

When:
11 a.m.-2 p.m. March 30-April 3; Sender's lecture is 12:30-1 p.m. Thursday, April 2

Where:
UC Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive, Orange (outside the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, bldg. 23 on medical center map: http://today.uci.edu/pdf/UCI_09_map_med_ctr.pdf)

Information:
Event is free and open to the public. Media planning to attend should contact John Murray at 714-456-7759.

Background:
Cancer patients ages 18-39 often do not receive the full benefit of advances in cancer treatment. Many oncologists treat them as they would older adults - with lower doses and slower courses of chemotherapy. Sender believes most of the 70,000 young adults diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S. should receive the same aggressive chemotherapy as in pediatric cases. Such treatment, he says, could increase young adults' survival rate from 40 percent to 70 percent. His goal is to promote awareness among patients and physicians.

"This age group has been neglected," Sender says. "There haven't been advances in their survival rates in 20 years." He believes a greater understanding of the research and clinical needs of these patients is critical to ensuring the best outcome from their cancer treatment. The Young Adult Cancer Program at UCI's Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of the nation's few programs dedicated exclusively to treating young adults and the kinds of cancer they most often experience, including melanoma, leukemia, and testicular and ovarian cancer.

Sender created the "Spot a Spot" education campaign for early identification of skin cancers and SeventyK.org to advocate for a patients' bill of rights.

More information about UCI's Young Adult Cancer Program »

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Contact:
John Murray
714-456-7759
jdmurray@uci.edu

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